Masuma Ahuja

Strategic Advisor & Writer

I work with founders, funders, and institutions on designing solutions to sticky, systemic problems.My work untangles questions of how to bring a diverse group of people together and build the conditions for trust and belonging to unlock business outcomes and economic possibility. Whether that's for a community platform, a members club, a city, or a room where a planet-sized problem needs solving.I help you diagnose what's missing, design what's needed, and figure out how to fund it.Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist + author. ex-CNN, Washington Post, Freeda.

About

I’m a writer and strategist whose work focuses on what it takes to bring a diverse group of people together, build the conditions for trust, and unlock economic possibility.I’m a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who worked at CNN, The Washington Post, and Freeda on understanding and reaching young audiences around the world.I’ve lived in five countries and called about a dozen cities home, which has shaped the questions I’ve spent my career exploring: How do we come together across borders and cultures? How do we build belonging? And what becomes possible when we do?I built CNN's presence on emerging social media platforms to 9 million users in two years and launched The Washington Post on Snapchat. I also led Freeda, one of the world's largest social publishers, which reached 550 million people a year. I hosted Little Revolutions, a podcast interviewing political leaders, CEOs, and thought leaders, with more than 10 million views.I’m known for innovative storytelling that gets people to slow down and recognise our shared humanity. Some of my most memorable work includes sending disposable cameras to women in 20 countries to create a portrait of motherhood around the world; creating a museum installation showcasing the lives of young people during conflict, as told through TikTok; collecting 10,000 voicemails from voters after a US election; and putting flyers in laundromats asking strangers to share their love stories.I also spent a year on the road, living out of a suitcase, reporting on the lives of migrant workers, trying to understand what makes us leave home and how leaving home shapes what you leave behind.My first book, Girlhood, published by Algonquin, featured the stories of 30 young women from 27 countries.Now, I write Future Possible, a newsletter exploring how we design and fund the infrastructure for a resilient future.I’m an associate of the Imperial War Museum. I have a degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from Oxford.

work with me

My expertise is in designing models for community and belonging + building economic and business models that support this.I can help if you're thinking through questions like:

  • You have a large group of people with a shared interest or identity, but you don't know how to turn that into a community.

  • How do you monetise that community? Nobody wants to pay a subscription fee for belonging

  • How do you scale the intimacy of a group chats to millions? And who pays for this?

  • How do you design a space, physical or virtual, so people come together and actually meaningfully engage with each other?

  • How do you turn one-off events into a recurrent model of community?

I'll help you untangle these questions and understand what your community needs, design a model (a product, a place) that creates a sense of belonging, and develop a business model to sustain this.Why work with me:I have spent my entire career building and scaling community. I understand how to make people come together, find common ground, and want to stay together. And I've spent the last 15 years untangling the challenges around how to fund and scale this.I'm really good at asking questions nobody else does, really listening to people to understand what they're struggling with even if they can't articulate it, seeing a problem from 17 different angles, holding several truths at once, and connecting unexpected ideas.

What working together looks like:

  • A retained advisory partnership as you navigate a complex moment.

  • A diagnostic sprint to get to the bottom of a specific problem and map what comes next.

  • A project with a clear output: a strategy, a framework, a funding case.

If this sounds like something you're interested in, let's talk.

writing

I write Future Possible, a newsletter and podcast exploring the intersection of climate, community, and capital: how we design and fund the infrastructure for a resilient and thriving future.
Read + listen here.This was born out of a viral newsletter, The Possibility Economy, which reached 1.5 million people on launch.I am also the author of Girlhood, a book featuring 30 girls from 27 countries around the world.You can explore more of my previous journalism projects here.

Archive

Select projects

An interview podcast I hosted, featuring conversations with political leaders, CEOs, and thought leaders. It had 10 million+ views on social media and was featured by Apple, Spotify, and Amazon .

  • Girlhood around the world: A series about the lives of teenage girls (The Washington Post)

This is a ten-part series I wrote for The Washington Post, which was a special mini-series in The Lily newsletter. This was featured on Apple News and Snapchat, and became the basis for my book.Series: Afghanistan | Nigeria | United States | Brazil | Refugee camp in Jordan | Sweden | Philippines | India | Democratic Republic of Congo | Cambodia

This is a museum installation at the Imperial War Museum in Manchester, UK, which I conceived and was created as a partnership between Freeda and IWM.Every day, for a few minutes, the entire museum goes dark and TikTok and Instagram videos are projected on every surface in the space. This is a peek into ordinary life in extraordinarily challenging times, as told through the voices and videos of 15 young Ukrainians.

I conceived, edited and produced this project, where I sent disposable cameras to women in 20 countries to create an intimate portrait of motherhood around the world, published across CNN digital and social platforms.

This piece was a Webby Honoree

This project won an EPPY award. I put flyers up around the United States asking people to leave a voicemail and tell us their love story. The stories aired on TV, social media, and digital platforms.

I conceived, commissioned, and edited this interview series about women and work. Interviewees included Obama White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, DC police chief Cathy Lanier, a Congresswoman and more.

A viral Tumblr sharing human stories and voicemails from people around the world.

Writing and reporting

On air

  • Joy - Anthems Podcast, Broccoli Productions

  • Voicemails from America - CNN - Discussing my reporting about how American voters were feeling in the aftermath of Election Day

Press, speaking, and advisory roles

Speaking

I have chaired panels on women's rights around the world, Gaza, beauty standards, and more at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in recent years. My co-panelists have included a Member of Parliament (UK), leading human rights lawyers who have represented Amber Heard, Booker Prize nominated authors, Penguin's Merky Book winners, and more.I have also guest lectured occassionally on innovation, leadership, and journalism, including at Oxford, Columbia, Goldsmiths, ONA-Poynter Women's Leadership Academy and more.

Advisory Roles

I am an associate, advising the Imperial War Museum in the UK. I also sit on the board of advisors for More to Her Story.

Awards

I share in a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the Washington Post's coverage of Edward Snowden and the NSA (2014).I also share in a Webby and and a Murrow Award for CNN's coverage of the 2016 elections on social media.I'm also a Webby honoree and an EPPY award winner for my digital audio projects at CNN.I was awarded a Howard Buffett grant by the International Women's Media Foundation.

Press

Interviews:
- More to Her Story Podcast interview
- Leading Millennials: Masuma Ahuja, CNN - The Splice Newsroom
- The old, new, and unexpected mediums for human stories - Journalism.co.uk podcast
- Making decisions when you're in a cone of uncertainty - Poynter
- CNN and Washington Post are using voicemail to connect with audiences - Journalism.co.uk
- Leave a message after the tone - Journalism.co.uk podcast
- The magic of ‘experiment-land’ in legacy newsrooms - Poynter
- Futures Lab: Ideas for using Vine and Snapchat - Reynolds Journalism Institute

Select press about my book, Girlhood:
- In ‘Girlhood,’ Teens Across the Globe Write About their Everyday Lives - NPR
- Hopes, dreams, and fears: the world of teenage girls through their diaries - The Guardian
- ’Girlhood’ and 6 other stories about being young and female - CNN
- 30 girls in 27 countries weigh in on Girlhood today - Women’s Media Center

Select press about my work:
- How CNN is recreating the #Rio2016 experience on social media - Journalism.co.uk
- How CNN juggles different mobile chat apps to cover the Olympics - DigiDay
- Developed with young readers in mind, CNN’s new Kik bot gives you the basics on big news stories - NiemanLab
- Why CNN, of all places, is asking for love stories - DigiDay
- Messaging apps, voicemail, and other platforms CNN’s Masuma Ahuja is exploring next - Poynter
- How news organizations are trying to get people to talk, and listen, to each other after the election - Poynter

Writing about my career:
- What to do when your career path is uncharted territory - Poynter
- Journalism starts working for, and with, communities - Prediction for journalism in 2023 for Harvard University's Nieman Journalism Lab
- Slower, quieter, more measured and thoughtful - Prediction for journalism in 2020 for Harvard University’s Nieman Journalism Lab
- Making foreign coverage less foreign - Prediction for journalism in 2019 for Harvard University’s Nieman Journalism Lab